Mazdaspeed 3 loud front driverside clunk

Shayne

Shayne

Greenie N00B Member
Greenie Member
Hey guys, there's a very loud clunking noise coming from the front driver side of my 2013 mazdaspeed 3. This happens when turning and going straight and reverse.

Here are all of the parts I recently replaced to try and fix the clunking:
*sway bar end links
*tie rod outter & inner ends
*CV axle
*lower control arm

The car sits on coilovers with adjustable camber plates that only have 10k miles. I checked the top mount bolt and that's fine.
Front sway bar and bushings are whitelines that were installed about 10k miles ago as well.
All 3 motor mounts were upgraded about 15k miles ago and look fine.
No wheel bearing whine and the wheel doesn't move when testing for it.

When I'm in neutral and not moving I also hear a slight clunk or even a click noise when turning the steering wheel. No power steering whine and car has enough fluid. Car handles and drives fine other than the noise.

Is it possible the car went out of alignment at some point and some suspension components are rubbing against each other? There are rubbing markings from the coilover adjustment on the frame of the car but I'm not sure this could cause such a loud clunk noise.
Can a steering rack cause a loud clunk even from accelerating?

I'm going crazy trying to pinpoint this issue. Any help would be appreciated.
 
*UPDATE*
Took my car to get an alignment today. The mechanic thinks it's due to the coilover having too much preload and causing it to bind. I haven't messed with the coilover since installing it a year ago. Can a coilover bind overtime?

Still clunking but the car drives great.
 
Awafrican said:
What suspension do you have? And yes shocks and springs can certainly fail
Click to expand...
I have yellowspeed dynamic pro sport coilovers.
Does binding mean the coilover is broken? I hear mixed comments about coilover binding.
 
Googling bound coilovers I see the odd post saying noise when turning wheel similar to what you described, I'm not familiar with it however it seems as if it's certainly a thing. When my shocks failed I got a knocking noise as well.
 
Well I reset the preload on both frotlnt coilovers and gave it one full turn. It appears one coilover wasn't locked completely and the height on the driverside was off by 4mm. Could this cause a strut bearing to fail quickly? I'm still hearing the knocking noise even after lowering the preload.
One thing I noticed is that my car makes this knocking noise when going forwards and backwards on the driveway. Can this even be considered spring binding if no turning is taking place?
 
Check your rearward front control arm bushing
 
I may have found the issue. A small crack had developed on the driverside powersteering bracket where it bolts into the subframe. This crack is now big enough to where I can take a pry bar and move part of it up and down with ease.
 

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Ok so now the situation is weird. I went on a drive the other day on a windy/bumpy road. After the drive the noise was completely gone. It took a day or two for the noise to come back though.
I greased the TMM and disassembled the coilover and greased that as well. Not sure what the problem could be now. Especially since it went away for a whole day.
 
Shayne said:
Ok so now the situation is weird. I went on a drive the other day on a windy/bumpy road. After the drive the noise was completely gone. It took a day or two for the noise to come back though.
I greased the TMM and disassembled the coilover and greased that as well. Not sure what the problem could be now. Especially since it went away for a whole day.
Click to expand...

Curious on your story, how did it end off?
 
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